Social Media Ban on ISIS Gives Rise to Tailor-Made Platforms for Caliphate

Social media ban on ISIS has given rise to tailor-made platforms for the Islamic caliphate. In response to the ban imposed on ISIS by various popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, supporters of the terrorist group have sprung into action. It has been reported that the backers of ISIS have started working on rolling out their own personalized social media platform to connect to a wider audience. They have tentatively called it ‘caliphate book’. However, it was reportedly offline Monday, March 9; exactly one day after their social media website was launched.

Twitter announced that it would suspend all the accounts linked to ISIS. These accounts were suspended on March 9. Though the Caliphate’s website crashed and did not go online after that, it is a growing cause of concern for social media users Worldwide. It also proves that using internet as a medium for recruiting new fighters from abroad, especially from the western world is becoming tougher for ISIS. It also goes to show the difficulties of running a non-stop propaganda by the supporters of this extremist group known for its mass and public execution of its opponents.

ISIS has shared many gruesome and horrific videos of its execution of citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other allies of the U.S. It released a video showing the horrifying execution of a Jordanian pilot captured by ISIS. This prompted Jordan to take quick and very severe action against ISIS and its safe houses. They had also released a video showing mass execution of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt. The name and link of their website has been withheld in this article. Thus, the ban on ISIS imposed by popular social media websites has given rise to various unique platforms for the Islamic caliphate.

The page of the website rolled out for the Islamic caliphate was designed using a program called Socialkit. It allows its end-users to build social network platforms for themselves. The page displayed a world map showing Islamic State’s flag and its emblem.

As of now, the designer of the website is unknown. No other details are available at the moment about the number of people who have registered or subscribed to the website page. The homepage of the website does show a typed message stating that the website’s operations were suspended temporarily in order to conceal facts about its member’s locations. The website’s page also mentioned that it was not financially sponsored by ISIS. The administrator page of the website also said in the message that they wanted to explain to the world, how they did not live in caves or carried guns along with them. They talked about advancing with their world in an Islamic manner.

The U.S. law enforcement agencies and Twitter Inc. are currently scrutinizing the multiple warnings and ultimatums by the online supporters of ISIS against Twitter’s own employees. The social media giant announced that it would be shutting down all accounts linked to ISIS on their domain. The ban on social media accounts linked to ISIS has given rise to such tailor-made internet platforms for the Islamic caliphate for spreading its message of terror and attracting impressionable and lonely youngsters from around the world.